Be Careful What You Wish For
by Kitty in a Pouch
Summary: Everything began when a shooting star crosses the sky of Namimori, Japan - a phenomenon that happened simultaneously across multiple parallel worlds. While Vongola Decimo wished for a peaceful life, another brunette made a wish for power. Little did they expect their wishes to be heard by the falling satellite and granted to them - just maybe not in the way they had hoped.
1. Prologue: When You Wish Upon A Star

**Disclaimer:** Katekyo Hitman Reborn is the rightful brainchild of Amano Akira-sensei. I could never be that awesome.

 **Prologue: When You Wish Upon A Star**

Star light, star bright,

First star I see tonight.

I wish I may, I wish I might,

Have the wish, I wish tonight.

Legend has it that a wish upon a star is magical, and can grant your heart's true desire. No one knows for sure the origin of such a saying, and no one knows exactly how it works. All we know is that behind every myth, and every legend, lies an ounce of truth within the explanation. And be it intentional or coincidental, simple or unattainable, a wish will always be sacred and its power not to be belittled.

A star might just be a luminous sphere of plasma in scientific sense, but if you have the faith, its power could be much more intense. As Disney puts it best, "When a star is born, they possess a gift or two. One of them is this, they have the power to make a wish come true."

* * *

[Vongola Japanese Headquarters, Namimori, Japan]

Vongola Decimo couldn't help the sigh that escaped his lips, nor the deep frown that formed between his eyebrows, as a new stack joined his already never ending piles of paperwork - another pile created by his guardians' 'individuality'.

Barely a day went by, in which his guardian did not cause some kind of incident that added to his already extremely high workload. Though he had yet to officially take over the mafia superpower, the now sixteen-year-old Sawada Tsunayoshi had been constantly fighting on the battlefield know as paperwork, ever since the brunette had finally agreed to the title of Decimo about a year ago. Since then, he's being seriously trained to be ready for his position, and Reborn hasn't been kidding when he warned Tsuna that the torture would multiply exponentially, especially since he had not grown up in the mafia like most heirs to mafia famiglie. Only then did Tsuna realise that being a mafia boss was not just about physical power. Mastering multiple languages, being up to date on current affairs, drills on accounting, familiarising major trade routes, learning about dinning etiquette, perfecting the art of body language, and most importantly - doing paperwork. These were all just a few of the trainings that Tsuna had to undergo as the heir to the largest mafia famiglia.

And, as much as Tsuna love his guardians and wouldn't exchange them for anything, there were times when the Vongola Decimo would give everything just to have a little peace and quiet. Far far away from all his paperwork. Especially at times like this...

BOOM! The single sound from somewhere within the headquarters made Tsuna sigh yet again. Great. More paperwork.

"Kyahahaha! You will never catch the great Lambo-sama. Charge, Gyuudon!"

"I'll make you pay for this, Aho-ushi! Triple Bomb!"

"Kufufufu, what kind of nightmare would you like to see for damaging my coat?"

"Mukuro-sama..."

"Shut up, herbivores. Kamikorosu."

"Ahaha. Everyone's getting along so well, right, senpai?"

"EXTREME DESTRUCTION!"

His dear guardians were way too destructive for his liking.

Tsuna stared at the mountains of paper with obvious contempt as a small flame came to life on his left hand. The temptation to just turn these harmless looking torture device into a pile of ashes was way too great, but the brunette held that temptation at bay as he willed his flame to extinguish. The trouble that comes with burning his paperwork would not be worth it and Tsuna shiver at the thought of what Reborn would do to him if he even dare try. Furthermore, all official documents in the Vongola (especially those sent to the upper echelon) are totally flame-proof, and thus Vongola Boss-proof. After all, flame comes with the Vongola blood, and Decimo was not the first to come up with the idea of burning these highly flammable materials.

* * *

[Somewhere, Another Namimori, Japan]

Sawada Tsunayoshi, also known as Dame-Tsuna by most, spotted various fresh cuts and bruises as he walked home from school. The sun was already setting and school had ended hours ago, but the brunette had decided to hide in his classroom to avoid meeting some of his classmates. Both his arms covered his abdomen in a protective hug as his stomach growled loudly, announcing to the world that the brunette had not had anything to eat since he left for school in the morning. Again.

As the bump on his temporal started to throb once again, Tsunayoshi wondered why he even bothered to resist his bullies' daily routine anymore. Sure, those so called classmates of his routinely beat him up regardless of whether he gave in to their demands or not, but resisting just gave them more reasons to add in extra rounds of what those bullies like to call 'punishments'. Days like this when he felt he could just be a little brave and decided to stand up to his bullies, he would always end up regretting. He should have just quietly handed over his lunch box and accepted the bare minimum punishment, since after all his efforts at fighting back, the brunette still ended up losing his lunch and received more cuts and bruises than usual.

What he wouldn't give to actually have the power to fight back. But, he's just the clumsy Dame-Tsuna, who fails at everything he does. He couldn't even walk on a straight path without tripping on his own two feet.

Well, at least this time, he escaped with his uniform intact. He even manages to not get any blood on his now dirty uniform. As long as he can get up into his room without his mother seeing him, he would be able to clean himself up and keep his mother from worrying too much. His mother wouldn't even suspect a thing if he just told her that he had tripped on the way to school.

"Tadaimasu." Tsunayoshi said quietly as he entered his house, hoping that he mother would not be able to hear him from the kitchen.

"Oh, Tsu-kun, okaeri." Sawada Nana shouted from the kitchen, obviously having heard her son's entrance loud and clear despite his best efforts. The older brunette came out of the kitchen to start a conversation, but Tsunayoshi at least managed to tumble up the stairs to his room before his mother could see his pathetic state.

It was half an hour later, that a considerably more presentable Sawada Tsunayoshi entered the kitchen to have his dinner.

"Ah, Tsu-kun! What happened to you?" Nana exclaimed, indicating the few more visible additions to her son's facial features.

"It's nothing, Kaa-san." Tsunayoshi replied at his mother's worry. "I-I just happened to trip again when I was rushing to school."

"Mou, you should be more careful." The brunette's mother pouted, almost like a child. As her son apologise for his carelessness, a smile replaced the pout as she continued, "I made your favourite hamburger steak. Don't forget to tidy up your room after this. You know who's coming tomorrow, right?"

Oh no! How could he have forgotten about this? A non-commentary grunt was all Tsunayoshi could offer as a response.

* * *

[Vongola Japanese HQ, Decimo's Office]

It's two in the morning, and more than half of the paperwork still sat innocently on Vongola Decimo's desk, waiting to be done. The more Tsuna stared at the white piles of doom, the more he felt that they were clearly mocking him. After all, if not for his _adorable_ guardians, the brunette would have long since finished his work and quite a bit of the left over paperwork were new additions thanks to the event that transpired at dinnertime.

It was close to 8pm when the Vongola heir had decided to join his guardian for a late dinner, but the plan was immediately scraped moments later. Tsuna had only taken no more than one and a half second upon entering the dining hall to take in the huge mess his guardians had made, before walking toward the still partially standing table, grabbed a plate of sandwiches that had miraculously escaped the destruction, and headed back to his office. Two hours later, Tsuna took in a deep breath to calm himself as a new pile of unfortunately flame-proofed paper joined the others on his desk. It wouldn't do for him to accidentally knock out the person delivering the papers again.

Seeing as the staring contest with his most abhorred inanimate enemies wasn't helping with his workload, the overworked Vongola heir decided to take a short break as he stretch his stiff shoulders and turned to look out the window at the night sky.

For once the mansion was peaceful and the night sky was dark with few stars adorning it, making the rare shooting star that suddenly glided across the heavens all the more striking.

With the never ending mountains of paperwork and his ever destructive guardians in mind, the Vongola Decimo made a wish upon the star.

* * *

[Sawada Household, Tsunayoshi's Bedroom]

Finally finished. Looking at the alarm clock at his bedside, Tsunayoshi realised that it was already 2am. It had taken everything he had and the whole night to finally finish his homework, and despite his best effort, the brunette knew that he had gotten more than half the questions wrong. He didn't even have time to clean up his room like his mother had asked. Well, it's already late, and Tsunayoshi had already done his best. If he still did not go to sleep, the chances that he would be able to reach school on time the coming morning would drop into the negative.

Tsunayoshi had no wish to be bitten to death.

As Tsunayoshi got ready for bed, a light from the pitch black night sky caught his attention and the brunette looked out his window to see a single falling star move pass the sky. Remembering the legend regarding the effectiveness of wishing upon a falling star, Tsunayoshi closed his eyes in concentration as memories of his failures during the day came back to him.

As the two brunettes across two parallel worlds mimicked each other's actions connected by the same descending satellite, their wishes resonated with each other, simultaneously reaching the star above their heads.

"I don't want to be weak anymore."

"Please spare me of all these paperwork."

 **Chapter Word Count:** 1721 words

* * *

Konichinya, mina-san! Kitty desu!

First I would like to apologise to those who have been following my other story, Reunion with Truth. I know it's been a long time since I last updated RwT, and I do promise that I have not totally abandon the story. It's just a serious case of writer's block, so… long haitus maybe?

Well, back to 'Be Careful What You Wish For'. This story has been sitting around in my laptop since my itchy hands created it last August, and I have been very hesitant to publish it since I haven't been able to update my other story. And I know that this story will mostly likely end up on a similar path. I am currently about 3 chapters into this story and already facing some problem. It's not that I don't know what I want to write, but I don't know how to actually write it. I have serious problems with planning ahead, you see.

For those who don't know me, I need to warn you beforehand that I am someone with a serious case of 'procrastination' and 'laziness', and story updates will be excruciatingly slow more often than not. Well, most of the time, I will put the blame on all the other awesome fanfictions, anime and manga out there. Teehee^_^

This chapter is a little short for my standard since it is just the prologue, but I would love to hear your opinion about it. Does anyone want to make a guess what happens next? I think I made it pretty obvious already. Any speculations, ideas or suggestions are welcome too. Reviews fuel my Dying Will!

I would also like to give special thanks to my IRL friend, who would like to be known as aixies_hiwatari, who had helped me with the overall planning of this story. Without her help and encouragement, I am not sure what this story would have turned out to be like. I might have given up or took the story in a totally different direction.

Well, I guess this author's note is long enough for this short chapter. Let's not further bore you with my ranting. Mata ne!

 **First Published:** 27 April 2017


	2. 1: Wishes Do Come True

**Disclaimer:** If I see a shooting star tonight, I will make my wish. Until then, nope, not mine.

 **1st Star: Wishes Do Come True**

[Somewhere in Namimori, Japan]

Sawada Tsunayoshi opened his eyes to blinding light. It took him a few moments to realise that he was lying on a bed and that the light that had woke him up was coming from the glowing sun instead of a table lamp. It took the brunette a moment more to comprehend what that meant and when his brain had finally caught up to his situation, the tenth boss of Vongola shot out of his bed and stared at the alarm clock by the bedside, which indicated the time to be 7.06am.

Oh no! He must have somehow fallen asleep! It's a miracle that the devil's incarnate had yet to come and deliver a blow to the Dame-Boss' head for slacking off, with that one-ton hammer he favours so much. Tsuna would have to hurry up and finish his remaining paperwork before-

Wait. What? Huh!?

As he took in his surrounding, Tsuna started to realise that the lost time and, as hard to believe as it is, Reborn, might not be the worst of his worries. He should have realised it the moment he had woke up on a bed instead of a chair, but the all-nighters he had pulled must be catching up to him and the familiar environment was not helping at all. The Decimo could not remember leaving his office, let alone the Vongola Japanese Headquarters, where he had been staying for the last month or so. SO, how did he ended up back in his bedroom, in his childhood home?

"Tsu-kun, are you awake yet?" The clear voice of his mother addressing him from the kitchen brought new challenge to the confused brunette at making sense of his current situation.

About a month ago, Tsuna had managed to talk the Ninth into ordering his father to take a long vacation so as to spend more time with his mother. The couple had then left for a long trip around Europe, which might be extended to include the rest of the world, and had not been scheduled to return to Japan yet. Therefore, there was no way his mother could be here, waking him up.

"Tsu-kun?" His mother called once again. "Hurry up or you will be late for school."

"I am awake," Tsuna called back. Something wasn't right, and until he can figure out what had happened, he was going to go with the flow. The least he could be thankful for is that he was at least not in any immediate danger, according to his hyper intuition.

Since his mother mentioned about school, Tsuna decided to change into his school uniform, and grab his school bag before going down for breakfast.

"Oh! That was fast," His mother commented, as she brought Tsuna his breakfast. Tsuna had taken his time as he tried to come to terms with his situation, and his mother thought he was fast? "Looks like you will have a little more time for breakfast today." Tsuna hadn't been this slow for at least a year now, thanks to Reborn's Spartan ways, and had thus always had time for breakfast. His mother wasn't making any sense. "Did you manage to clean up your room last night?"

Tsuna took a bite into the omelette his mother had prepared, as his recalled the state his room was in when he woke up, before replying, "No. I will clean up once I get back from school." Despite how Nana wasn't making any sense, his observation, coupled with his intuition, told Tsuna that this was indeed his mother and not some assassin trying to get close to the Vongola Decimo.

"But you won't have enough time for that." At Tsuna's confused stare, Nana added, "Your cousin, Mitsukuni, is coming this afternoon along with his home tutor, remember?"

Cousin!? But Tsuna doesn't have any cousins, since both his parents do not have any siblings. It couldn't be ...!

"Oh no! Look at the time, Tsu-kun!" Nana exclaimed. "You better hurry, or you will be late for school!" Looking at the kitchen clock, Tsuna noted that it was indeed getting a little late. If it was before he met Reborn, the brunette would definitely ended up late for school, but with his speed now, if Tsuna just ran a little, he would reach school with lots of time to spare. Everything just seemed to be favouring his theory more and more.

But, well, better starts leaving for school before his mother got worried. "Ittekimasu, Kaa-san."

If the situation was just as the brunette suspected it to be, there's just one person he could turn to for help. But that would have to wait though, since Tsuna had school to attend first.

* * *

[Somewhere else, in another Namimori, Japan]

"Wake up, Dame-Tsuna." A cutesy voice registered in Tsunayoshi's still-very-much-asleep brain moments before something extremely heavy connected with the brunette's skull, fully waking him up, and sent him flying out of the chair, into the opposite wall.

"HEEIIIIIII!" Tsunayoshi let out a scream at the pain while part of him heard the same cutesy voice said something along the line of, "Oh, it connected," as a passing remark.

"If I hear you make even the beginning of that pathetic sound in today's meeting, you will see hell." The voice turned cold despite the same cutesy quality never leaving it, sending a shiver down Tsunayoshi's spine at the obvious threat.

Daring to look at the owner of the voice, the brunette found a baby dressed totally in black - black hat, black suit, black dress pants, black dress shoes - except for the single orange strip on his fedora, the neon green chameleon resting on that same fedora, and the bright yellow pacifier on his chest. Pitch black orbs, which were the speaker's eyes, stared back at Tsunayoshi, and said brunette suddenly had the strangest thought that maybe the baby's heart was just as black.

Then suddenly, without any preamble that Tsunayoshi could detect, the brunette felt a sharp pain in the middle where his stomach was, which he could associate with a kick - though this kick was much, much worse than what he had received from his bullies on a daily basis.

"I won't be so kind next time." Tsunayoshi looked pass his pain, to see the baby pointing a mini green gun at him. Did this baby just indicate that he was the one who had delivered that painful kick? No, wait, that's not important right now. Where the hell had that gun come from? "Now, talk. Who are you, and what had you done to the Decimo?"

"I-I am Sawada Tsuna- Heeiiiii!" A single bullet, which brushed past Tsunayoshi's spiky hair before logging itself deep into the wall behind him, changed his attempted self-introduction into another high pitched scream.

"You would have fooled the world, but not me," the baby stated coldly, his face expressionless. "Talk before I lose my patience. Which famiglia are you from?"

"Fa-famiglia?" Tsunayoshi questioned, earning him another bullet too close for comfort. "Heeiiii! I am telling the truth!" Tsunayoshi exclaimed before he lost his chance. "I have no idea who you are, what you are talking about, or what this Decimo is. Please don't kill me!" the brunette rattled off, closing his eyes and praying for his dear life.

The already terrified brunette's head snapped up, when the door suddenly slammed open to reveal three people, two of whom Tsunayoshi recognised as his classmate, Yamamoto Takeshi, and a senior, who also happened to be his classmate, Kyoko-chan's brother, Sasagawa Ryohei. The third, who stood in front of the other two, was a scary-looking guy with chin-length silver hair, whom Tsunayoshi did not recognise.

"Juudaime!" the silver-haired guy exclaimed as he slammed the door open, before taking a better look, and his worry turned to confusion at the sight before him. "Reborn-san, what is going on?"

"That's right, kid. Why are you attacking Tsuna?" Yamamoto questioned, just as cheerful as always, having relaxed from his earlier tension when entering the room.

"This isn't Dame-Tsuna," Reborn (weird name, but since that's what the silver-haired guy had called him...) replied, getting Tsunayoshi's attention. Strangely, when the baby had said 'Dame-Tsuna', the brunette had not felt that the nickname was degrading. But, what had the baby's words meant? No one else in Namimori was nicknamed Dame-Tsuna. "Or rather, this isn't Vongola Decimo."

Huh?

"What do you extremely mean?" Sasagawa-senpai voiced their collective thoughts loudly.

"He was fast asleep when I entered the room, even _after_ I told him to wake up." Reborn began what Tsunayoshi assume was supposed to be an explanation, since at least the silver-haired guy's face showed some form of enlightenment. "I managed to hit him with my Leon-mallet for the first time in half a year, and even then he did not react fast enough not to hit the wall, or even to just brace for impact." The brunette saw Yamamoto's eyes widen slightly at that. "Most importantly, he does not recognise me." Now even Sasagawa-senpai seemed to have understood something, leaving Tsunayoshi the only clueless one in the room. Was he supposed to have met this Reborn person before? Despite being Dame-Tsuna, the brunette was sure that there was no way he could have forgotten such as weird, violent, articulate baby even if he tried.

"Did Juudaime lose his memories?" the sliver-haired guy exclaimed, rushing to Tsunayoshi's side and started examining the latter, producing a first aid kit in the process. "Are you hurt anywhere? Did you hit your head? What's the last thing you remember? Do you remember me?" At the brunette's surprised and mostly confused stare, the sliver-haired guy looked on the verge of tears.

A green blur flashed past Tsunayoshi's sight followed by a loud smack, and a red imprint of a slipper suddenly appeared on the silver-haired guy's left cheek. "Calm down, Gokudera, and listen to me. You don't have to look like the apocalypse is here just because he doesn't recognise you." Turning his attention back to observe the brunette, Reborn continued to address Gokudera, "Like I said, this isn't your beloved Juudaime."

"I still don't understand, kid," Yamamoto voiced out, looking more serious than Tsunayoshi had ever seen him.

"His fringe is about half a centimetre longer than yesterday," The toddler answered, eyes still fixed on the brunette. "There are at least five bruises, two cuts, and three abrasions which are visible, and looked at least half a day old. His abdomen felt a lot softer when I kicked him." Before Tsunayoshi could react, Reborn had moved to pull up his shirt to reveal his stomach. "I was right. Those pathetic six-pack abs of his are gone." Tsunayoshi had no idea if the baby was complementing or insulting him now. "And I am sure we left this jacket of his back at the house. Not to mention, this poorly done stitching here is definitely new," Reborn finished, indicating the part of his favourite jacket which his bullies had torn last week, and Tsunayoshi had tried his best to hide from his mother by patching it up himself.

"You mean this is an imposter?" Yamamoto questioned carefully, a hand reaching for the long bag he had brought along with him. Beside him, Sasagawa-senpai tightened the bandages around his hands.

Imposter!? Whose imposter? Tsunayoshi quickly reached for his face to assure himself that he was indeed still himself. Nothing felt out of place. Catching a faint reflection of himself on the window quickly suppressed the sudden irrational suspicion that he had maybe woke up with the wrong face, or in the wrong body.

"No, I don't think so," The Gokudera guy objected, observing Tsunayoshi intently. "His features look real enough, including these injuries, which would not make sense if he is an imposter. No one would intentionally send an injured agent unless there are other hidden motives. And it also does not explain why he does not recognise Reborn-san."

"Gokudera's right," The aforementioned baby agreed.

"I am extremely confused!" Sasagawa-senpai exclaimed.

Instead of dignifying the boxer's statement with a reply, Reborn address Tsunayoshi instead, "I expect you to answer all of my questions truthfully." The mini green gun that had once again appeared on the baby's hand, pointing directly at the brunette's chest, declared the unspoken 'or else' loud and clear.

"Who are you?" Reborn questioned, repeating his initial question.

"I-I am... Sa-Sawada Ts-Tsunayoshi," The brunette answered fearfully, remembering the last time he answered the same question and expecting a bullet to come his way as he finished the sentence. Luckily, none came. But the sound of the safety of a gun being released following the completion of his answer, suggested that the toddler was still not satisfied with what he heard, and forced Tsunayoshi to continue, "I-I am s-sixteen years old, a-an o-only child, b-born on 14th October, 165cm tall, a-about 52kg, erm, blood type A." Seeing as Reborn had not proceed to shoot him, but continued to glare at Tsunayoshi with his mini green gun pointed accurately at his racing heart, the brunette added, "I-I am a f-first year student of Namimori High School, class 1A. P-people usually call me Tsuna, or-or, more-more commonly, D-Dame-Tsuna, since I am... e-extremely clumsy, has bad luck and... and has... very poor grades."

The baby seemed to think for a moment, before asking, "Where did those wounds come from?"

"I-I trip a lot?" Tsunayoshi made the mistake of looking at Reborn's eyes as he answered, making his reply sound more like a question than an answer. If he could help it, Tsunayoshi would rather not talk about his embarrassing experiences to a baby, much less one he just met, but the brunette had the strangest feeling that Reborn would be the first to know if he so much as replied with anything but the truth. "I-I got most of it from my bullies."

"Tell me more about your family," Reborn demanded, seeming satisfied with the brunette's short answer.

"I-I live with my mother, Sawada Nana, wh-who is a housewife," Tsunayoshi complied. "C-currently there's only the two o-of us in the house. My father, Sawada Iemitsu, is away due to his work. I was told that he works for an oil company, and goes around the world digging for oil. I-I haven't seen him for the last three year. Kaa-san once told me he went to join the stars and so I thought he died, until last week when I saw the letter he sent Kaa-san telling her that my cousin will be coming to stay with us today."

"Cousin?" The toddler questioned, and while there was no change to his tone and expression, the surprised look on the others' faces told the brunette that his seemingly small and unimportant revelation came as a big shock to all his audiences.

"He is my only cousin, Sawada Mitsukuni," Tsunayoshi nodded in reply to Reborn's question, "only son of my uncle, Tou-san's younger twin brother, Sawada Ietsugu. We are the same age, though he is older than me by a few months and used to play together a lot when we were young, until Mitsu moved to Italy with his family when we were twelve."

"Reborn-san!" Gokudera exclaimed, looking like the tiny little fact of Tsunayoshi's extended family had spelt the end of the world. "It can't be..." he trailed off, leaving Yamamoto and Sasagawa-senpai to look at him in confusion.

"I am afraid so," Reborn replied grimly, lowering his gun. "What was the last thing you remember before I woke you up, Sawada Tsunayoshi?"

Stunned by the sudden change in atmosphere, and Reborn's sudden acknowledgement of his name, it took a moment before the question registered. "I stayed in my room after dinner to complete my homework. I was supposed to be cleaning up my room to prepare for Mitsu's arrival today but by the time I finished my homework, it was already, erm... 2am. I was too tired, so I just went to sleep. The next thing I remember was waking up here."

"Did you see anyone else here before me?" Reborn questioned, with a slight twitch of his eyebrows that almost resembled a frown.

Tsunayoshi shook his head in negative.

"Have any of you seen Dame-Tsuna anywhere else this morning?" Reborn directed the question at the other three present.

"No," Gokudera answered, looking at his two companions for confirmation. "I didn't see Juudaime in the kitchen when I went down for a drink nor in the dining room, so I went to his bedroom, but it looks like he didn't even go back there last night. I was on my way here to check when I heard the commotion."

"I believe the last time most of us saw Tsuna, was during dinner last night, around... eight o'clock?" Yamamoto said, looking thoughtful for a moment.

"That's right!" Sasagawa-senpai added loudly. "Sawada EXTREMELY grabbed a plate of sandwiches and left."

"I came in here to check on Juudaime last night at around 12.30am," Gokudera added. "There were still piles of paperwork on his desk so I offered to help him but Juudaime ordered me to go to bed first."

These people were talking about him, right? Tsunayoshi stared from one person to another during their short discussion in confusion. Though the brunette had no idea why Gokudera kept saying 'Juudaime' (tenth? what's that supposed to mean anyway?), Reborn had asked the three about 'Dame-Tsuna' and Yamamoto had replied about 'Tsuna', while Sasagawa-senpai talked about 'Sawada', so Tsunayoshi could only conclude that the conversation was about him. But the strangest thing was he has absolutely no idea what anyone was talking about! Like he had just told them, Tsunayoshi had dinner with his mother last night - his favourite hamburger steak, not sandwiches - and then stayed in his room to complete his homework. The brunette had not even stepped out of his house since he got home from school the day before, let alone had any contact with Yamamoto, Sasagawa-senpai, or this Gokudera guy!

"I am EXTREMELY confused!" Sasagawa-senpai exclaimed, a little too loudly for comfort. "What is going on TO THE EXTREME!"

"What is going on, you stupid muscle-head, is that Juudaime is missing," Gokudera began, but was interrupted by Sasagawa-senpai before he could continue.

"But Sawada is extremely here!"

"Yes. But this is not Juudaime," Gokudera replied, raising his voice in frustration.

"What do you mean Sawada is not Sawada TO THE EXTREME!?" Sasagawa-senpai interrupted once again, making Gokudera's face grow redder with anger.

"It means that this Juudaime is not our Juudaime!"

"But Sawada will always be Sawada TO THE EXTREME!"

Gokudera's face was definitely not a happy colour after being interrupted by Sasagawa-senpai and the beginning of an explanation had quickly escalated to a shouting match. "Why you-" With that, Gokudera suddenly produced multiple sticks held between his fingers, that suspiciously resembled the dynamites Tsunayoshi had seen before on television.

"Maa, maa," Yamamoto stepped between the two. "Let's calm down and explain slowly, ne? I don't really understand what's going on here either."

The baseball player's calming smile seemed to have the opposite effect on Gokudera. "You two muscle-heads are idiots! I have better things to do than explaining things to you." Gokudera put a hand through his hair, seeming to have given up the argument with the others.

"Don't be so mean, Gokudera," Yamamoto smiled.

The argument continued like this in circles for a while longer and Tsunayoshi could do nothing but just stared, feeling more than a little lost. That is, until the trio were silenced suddenly, by a single glare the baby sent their way.

'Just what is wrong with these people?' Tsunayoshi thought, looking around the room to take in his surrounding since no one else was paying him any attention. 'Nothing seems right here. In fact, everything's wrong with the world since I woke up today.'

"That's because you woke up in the wrong world." Tsunayoshi was shocked to find that the baby was addressing him, when he finally turned his attention back to the group.

'WHAT!?' was the most coherent thought the brunette could come up with.

"What I mean is that you came from a parallel world where things are a little different, Baka-Dame-Tsuna," Reborn once again replied.

'What's that supposed to mea- Wait. Did that baby just read my thoughts?' Tsunayoshi was too shock and confused to reply verbally.

"No. They are written all over your face." Despite denying the fact, Reborn's repeated replies to what was supposed to be Tsunayoshi's thoughts only increased the suspicion of his mind-reader status.

"What's this para-something that you mentioned earlier?" Tsunayoshi questioned carefully, deciding to put the mind reading matter aside for the moment, in favour of making sense of his situation. It also helped that no one's trying to kill him now.

The green slipper that came flying his way not a moment later, made the brunette once again lament that he had thought too soon. "Assuming that you follow the same curriculum as Dame-Tsuna of this world, your science teacher should have at least mentioned parallel worlds when covering black holes three weeks ago."

Tsunayoshi vaguely remember the teacher talking about black holes during class, but the concept was too complex for the mind of Dame-Tsuna, that the teacher sort of lost the brunette five seconds into the topic.

"The concept of parallel worlds or some say parallel universe is a theory of self-contained, separate reality co-existing with one's own," Gokudera kindly provided, but only succeeded in making the brunette more confused. "It is more widely known in the scientific community as the 'many-worlds interpretation', which is an interpretation of quantum mechanics that asserts the objective reality of the universal wavefunction and denies the actuality of wavefunction collapse. It implies that all alternate histories and futures are real, each representing an actual 'world' or 'universe', meaning that there is an infinite number of universe, where everything that could possibly have happened, but did not in our world, has occurred in some other worlds or universes..." Somewhere along his explanation, Gokudera had taken to writing on a whiteboard, which Tsunayoshi was sure was not there moments before. As Gokudera continued his incomprehensible explanation, he moved to another blank space on the board to start drawing something that resembled a cat in a box, next to his very complicated tree-diagram, and some little balls coming out of what he has labelled as a ray gun.

"Parallel worlds are basically the idea that every choice you make is a branching point resulting in many possible futures. The world we live in is just one of the many worlds that exist alongside each other," Reborn simplified, interrupting whatever complicated explanation the silver-haired teen was going into. "Judging from your story, you never had the good fortune of having me, the world's greatest hitman, as your home tutor, unlike the Dame-Tsuna of this world," The baby boasted, Tsunayoshi assume, though, how the hell he expects the brunette to believe that a baby can be a hitman, much less a tutor, was beyond him. "And just like what I told Tsuna, you really did end up leading a super lousy and worthless life." The smirk on Reborn's increasingly more expressive face only served to emphasize the mockery in his words. "The only other major difference that is apparent so far would be the existence of your uncle, Sawada Ietsugu, and cousin, Sawada Mitsukuni. Your cousin has clearly taken over Tsuna's role as Decimo in your world," Reborn continued his explanation calmly, but the words caused Tsunayoshi to do a double take.

"WHAT!?" The brunette did another double take as he heard his exact word echoed by Gokudera, who had stopped his explanation in favour of listening to Reborn's, at almost precisely the same time.

"That bustard! How dare he?" Gokudera continued with anger clear in his voice, barely able to keep himself from shaking with rage. "No one can replace Juudaime. NO ONE."

"Maa, maa, relax, Gokudera," Yamamoto smiled, slinging an arm over Gokudera's shoulders. "It's just a parallel world."

"Shut up, Yakyu-Baka!" Gokudera yelled, seething. "Even if it is a parallel world, Juudaime will always be Juudaime!"

"Ahaha, I am not very good with complicated things. I can't really relate to things like parallel worlds," Yamamoto began, scratching the back of his head sheepishly and earning him a more deadly glare from Gokudera. But before Gokudera could retort, he continued, "We just have to get our Tsuna back." The atmosphere around the baseball star had taken a 180 degree turn. With the sheepish smile suddenly gone and his eyes narrowed in determination, Yamamoto's expression could only be described with one word - scary.

"EXTREMELY find Sawada!" Sasagawa-senpai shouted with his usual enthusiasm despite the sudden serious mood, and Tsunayoshi could almost see sunshine pouring out of the boxer and washing over the entire room.

"We are not deaf, idiot Shibafu-Attama!" Gokudera shouted back, almost as loud as the one he was reprimanding, and effectively starting another round of argument.

"So? You understand your situation now, Parallel-Baka-Dame-Tsuna?" Reborn questioned, ignoring the arguing trio in favour of Tsunayoshi.

"Parallel-Baka-Dame-Tsuna?" The brunette echoed. Does this baby like to insult him that much?

"We have to differentiate you from the Dame-Tsuna of this world." Reborn stated matter-of-factly. "But maybe Parallel-Baka-Dame-Tsuna is too long. Just Parallel-Dame-Tsuna then."

'That's still quite long.' Tsunayoshi couldn't help but think.

"So you are saying that I came from a different world and in this world… Mitsu doesn't exist?" Tsunayoshi said, both answering Reborn's previous question and clarifying his situation. Tsunayoshi's breath caught in his throat when Reborn acknowledge his question with a nod. He might not have seen his cousin in years, but they used to be really close. To think that Mitsu does not exist in this world... He would just have to hold that thought. There are more important things to figure out for now, like, "How did I end up here and how do I get back to my world?"

"That's what we need to find out," Reborn answered simply. "Something must have happened to link our two worlds."

"If we can just talk to Juudaime, we might be able to figure out what happened." Gokudera suddenly joined their conversation, seeming to have either resolved or given up on the trio's argument once again.

The mention of 'Juudaime' immediately caught Tsunayoshi's attention and he grabbed the chance to ask the question that had been bothering him since he first heard it. "This 'Juudaime' refers to the Sawada Tsunayoshi of this world right?"

"Of course," Gokudera answered proudly.

"Why do you call him that though?" Tsunayoshi asked.

"That's because Juudaime is the most awesome person out there. He-" Gokudera began proudly, with eyes shining like a child on Christmas day.

But before he could continue, he was interrupted by Reborn, "We don't have time for you Tsuna-worship now, Gokudera. Simply put, Tsuna is going to be the tenth boss of Vongola, the most powerful Mafia Famiglia, and thus the title of Decimo, or in Japanese, Juudaime."

"Ma-mafia!?" To say Tsunayoshi was shocked would be the understatement of the millennium. There's no way he could be in the mafia in this world, or ANY world for that matter, let alone a Mafia boss! These people are joking, right? RIGHT!?

"Tsuna personally agreed to the title of Decimo about a year ago," Reborn stated, answering the brunette's thoughts. Again. "I will explain the details later. Worse come to worse, we will need someone to do all the paperwork, after all." The calculative smirk on Reborn's face sent shivers down Tsunayoshi's spine, though the reason of which escapes the brunette's still confused mind at the moment. "For now, we need to first find Dame-Tsuna."

"Where is he anyway?" Tsunayoshi asked, surprised that he hadn't thought to ask sooner.

"In your world," Reborn stated, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world and Tsunayoshi's an idiot for not knowing the fact.

"Then how are we going to find him!?"

"There's only one person we can go to for such things. You will see when we get there," Reborn replied, turning to leave. It was then that Tsunayoshi realised that the other three had already left the room, most likely when he was in shock over the whole Mafia thing. "Get moving now or I will make you. We don't have all day, you know, Pame-Tsuna." Reborn's voice broke Tsunayoshi out of his thoughts, along with the gun pointed accurately at the brunette, this time, at his forehead.

"Pame-Tsuna?" Tsunayoshi questioned, surprised and confused at the change of nickname.

"Parallel-Dame is a mouthful." Reborn replied matter-of-factly.

'You could have just called me Tsuna.' The brunette thought while he followed behind the toddler, valuing his life too much to voice his objection out loud.

* * *

[Namimori High School, Namimori, Japan]

Boring. The one word invented to describe school regardless of which world it is in. Fifteen minutes into the third period of the day, and this was already the 34th time or so Tsuna had thought the lesson content along with its method of delivery being boring. Despite being a parallel world, the teaching content and even the teaching speed were exactly the same as where Tsuna had come from, so there was no way the brunette would not find them boring. After all, his sadistic home tutor from hell had literally hammered (as in Reborn brought his favourite one-ton hammer down on his beloved student's head every time the brunette got a question wrong) the whole Japanese High School curriculum into Tsuna's head a week before he graduated from middle school.

Not that Tsuna usually showed the extent of his knowledge in class back in his world, but at least he had his friends with him. Gokudera would be equally as bored and would sometimes try to entertain Tsuna without the teacher finding out. Furthermore, Tsuna would always bring along some form of reading material - be it a reference book on a certain culture or some journal article regarding the most efficient way to produce electricity, and recently, Tsuna had taken to reading a book on the Korean Language - so that he can have something to alleviate his boredom while pretending to listen in class. Right now, however, the best Tsuna could do to pass the time, was to stare out the window and count the passing clouds.

"Sawada! Answer the third question on the board!" His mathematics teacher, Sato-sensei demanded, obviously having caught Tsuna's total lack of attention to his lesson.

Startled by the sudden exclamation, the brunette stood up, took a quick look at the simple differentiation question and answered before thinking, "3x to the power of 3, minus 5x, plus 1." Realising a second too late that he had spoken the correct answer with too much confidence and too quickly, Tsuna added, "I, erm... think?" Pretending to tiptoe as if he was looking at the answer of the person in front of him, Tsuna prayed hard that someone would take his bait and get him out of this predicament.

"Sensei, Sawada's peeping at Takagi-kun's answers," the classmate sitting diagonally behind Tsuna exclaimed, breaking the silence.

"Hahaha, and I thought the world's going to end today since Dame-Tsuna was suddenly able to answer a math question," another classmate exclaimed.

"I know right," someone else added, joining in the multiple jokes and insults currently being thrown at Tsuna. "It's almost disappointing that he had just resorted to cheating this time."

"Everyone quiet down," Sato-sensei interrupted the impromptu 'Dame-Tsuna thrashing' session. "And Sawada, if you don't know the answer, just say so like usual. Don't cheat."

"Okay." Tsuna replied softly, letting out a sigh of relief (which most would interpret as defeat) as he sat down.

If it had been back in his own world, Tsuna would have been able to easily pass off getting a question or two correct as long as it didn't happen often. After all, he had been letting his grade improve steadily but slowly to avoid any suspicion. But that would never work in this world. Just from this morning's observation, the brunette could safely conclude that the Sawada Tsunayoshi of this world was still the Dame-Tsuna he was more than two years ago and that his parallel counterpart had never met Reborn.

Firstly, from what he could recall, the room he had woken up in might have a similar layout to his own, but it was in such a mess that the current he couldn't stand. As soon as they started having some form of peace after the representative battle, Reborn had not only started to correct the Vongola Decimo's horrible grades, but also some of his bad habits, his messy room being one of the first on the list. If Reborn had also become this world's Tsuna's tutor, there's no way that demonic hitman would have allowed his room to remain in that messy condition. Furthermore, when Tsuna had just reached school in the morning, he had taken a quick look at the finished homework in his school bag out of curiosity, and was shock to see that his counterpart had at least gotten 70 percent of most pieces wrong. And the handwriting was as horrendous as his used to be. Reborn would have never let him live with it.

With an upcoming meeting with various Yakuza bosses coming up back home and being extremely behind on all his paperwork, Tsuna had been forced to skip school for the past two weeks, secluding himself at the Vongola Japanese Headquarters to fulfil his duties as the Decimo. The brunette had thought that he would use this unexpected event to spend some relaxing time in school but it seemed that that's not going to happen. His recent absence from school had left him a little out of touch with his Dame-act, and looking at the current situation, Tsuna might have to double, even triple his efforts to prevent any suspicion.

* * *

To say Tsuna had never tried harder in his life would definitely be a lie. After all, since the brunette had met Reborn, he had been put in enough life and death situations to last him a few lifetimes. Plus, that devil reincarnate of a tutor of his was enough of a 'motivation' for the Vongola Decimo to do everything with his dying will and more on a daily basis. However, this school day was anything but relaxing. Pretending to be his clumsy and useless counterpart had taken a lot out of the Mafiaso. Was Tsuna really such a useless person before he met Reborn? As sad as it is, Reborn would definitely rub it in his face that the answer was probably yes.

Well, enough about his previous uselessness. Despite the relief of being able to take a break from all the annoying paperwork, it wouldn't do for Tsuna to stay in this parallel world for too long. Just thinking about how much paperwork could and would pile up in his absence was giving him a headache. The brunette had to find a way back. And there is only one person who can help him, but where will he find that person in this parallel world?

"Oh, Tsu-kun! Okaeri!" Nana greeted as her son returned home from school.

"Tadaimasu, Kaa-san," Tsuna returned the greeting. "Is Mitsukuni-kun and his tutor here already?"

"Oh, Mi-kun says that they will be a little late," Nana replied. "By the way, someone's here to see you. I never knew you were friends with such a handsome young man." For some reason, his mother looked exceptionally happy. "He's waiting in your room."

"I see." With that, Tsuna speed off to his room to meet this 'handsome young man'. From the day's observation, Tsuna could conclude that, like his thirteen-year-old self, his parallel counterpart was a clumsy, bully magnet with little friends - someone who would usually not get any visitor, let alone someone his mother would describe as a 'handsome young man'. So, who could this person be?

Opening the door to his room, Tsuna did a double take. Sure, his room was messier than he was comfortable with when he left this morning, but what greeted him was a completely different sight. The clutter of things in the room he had woken up to were nowhere to be seen, hidden under piles of small, soft and sickeningly sweet cylindrical objects. In fact, what met the brunette's eyes could be summarised with a single word - white.

"Hi~, Tsunayoshi-kun," greeted the 'handsome young man', white hair and clothes blending in perfectly with the marshmallow wonderland he had created around him. If not for his contrasting purple irises, Tsuna might not have spotted him as quickly among his ever present snack.

"Byakuran!?" Nope. That was a lie. The Vongola Decimo would spot this wayward Millefiore Boss - and the chaos he always brings with him - anyway in a quarter of a millisecond. "What are you doing here?"

"For my best bud and a fellow guardian of the trinisette, of course," Byakuran replied, with his signature closed-eye smile, which never signified anything good for our dear brunette's sanity.

"Ya, right. Cut me the nonsense. Like you'd be doing anything for anyone other than yourself," Tsuna deadpanned. "You know that's not what I meant. Shouldn't you be in Italy?"

"Well, in this world, I am a High School Student in Japan, just like you, Tsunayoshi-kun. My family moved to Japan when I was five," Byakuran explained. "And I wasn't lying before. I really did come here for you. Or more specifically, to help you get back to you own world."

"You know how to send me back?" Tsuna asked, stunned. The familiar face and his light-hearted teasing had made the brunette almost forget that this Byakuran before him was not the Byakuran he had gotten to know in his own world. This is just a parallel version of his maybe-almost friend.

"I don't know how to send you back," Byakuran stated shamelessly, and continued at the Vongola Boss' narrowed eyes. "I never said I know the way. I am just here to help you figure it out."

"Then what do you know?" Tsuna asked in return, before another thought struck him. "Wait. How do you know about my situation in the first place?"

"My parallel self met the Tsunayoshi-kun from this world in your world earlier today," Byakuran explained. "So, I am more or less here as a messenger of sort."

"So we switched places." Tsuna knew that he should be more surprised at this revelation, but it's the explanation that made the most sense. Seeing as there isn't two versions of him running around in this world, the original Tsuna form this world had to go somewhere when he arrived here. "But I thought you said that travelling between parallel worlds is impossible. The future you destroyed a whole world trying."

"Maybe it is not as impossible as I thought," The white-haired monster mused, not guilty at all, even after being accused of destroying a parallel world. "Maybe it's just not possible to have two of the same person exist in the same world at the same time."

"Then what triggered the switch?" Tsuna wondered, accepting the other's reasoning for now.

"What was the last thing you remember before arriving in this world?" Byakuran replied with a question of his own.

"I was in my office doing paperwork as usual, halfway through the report detailing cost for repairing the dining room's wall, at around 2am when I paused for a short break," Tsuna began, anger rising a little at the memory of aforementioned report. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, the brunette continued, "I must have fell asleep after that, and the next thing I know, I woke up on my bed, in this world."

"Did anything happen between your break and you falling asleep?"

"No. It wasn't much of a break, really," Tsuna replied, thinking back to the night before. "I only put down my pen for a while to stretch my shoulders, and distracted myself a little by looking out the window - " The all-too-clear memory of a shooting star gliding across the night sky made the brunette pause his narration. "It can't be."

"What can't be?" Byakuran prompted.

"I... erm, this may sound ridiculous, but I, er, just remembered that last night, there...there was a shooting star, and I sort of, er... maybe, made a wish, and the next thing I remember was waking up in this world." Tsuna was sure that the unintentional sudden lapse into his former Dame self was unbefitting of a Mafia boss, and if Reborn ever found out about it, the brunette would have a whole new understanding of the word, torture.

"What wish did you make?" Byakuran asked, seemingly unaware of his brunette friend's inner turmoil. Or maybe he just doesn't care.

"Well, I was tired, and because of those guardians of mine, the paperwork is endless and..." Okay, if Reborn ever knows about this, Tsuna is so dead. "I wished to be spared of all the paperwork. Please don't tell Reborn about this."

A look at the heartless world-destroying tyrant before him, and Tsuna lost all hope of survival. "You are going to tell Reborn about this, aren't you?" The brunette really shouldn't have bordered hoping in the first place. There were way too many people in his life who took pleasure in his suffering, and being the student of Reborn, he really should be used to sadism by now.

"Your wish upon a star came true. It can be important information in helping us understand the situation," Byakuran stated, - and as expected - not at all sympathetic towards Tsuna's imminent death. "And you know that tutor of yours can be very persuasive."

This is it. Sawada Tsunayoshi, Tenth boss of the Vongola Famiglia is officially dead. There's no way his demon tutor would not kill him for this.

 **Chapter Word Count:** 7013 words

* * *

Konnichinya minna-san, Kitty desu! Well, this chapter came out a little late, but hope you like it.

This story will keep toggling between the canon world and parallel world, so hopefully, no one's too confused by it, because upcoming chapters will also be like this. But if you are, I will give you some hints. Firstly, most line breaks will indicate a world change, though there will be some exceptions like the last part of this chapter. Secondly, I will also indicate the location in square brackets [ ] after most line breaks which will hopefully help you in identifying the world, though this might not be as useful later on in the story. Lastly, our favourite Vongola Decimo, canon Sawada Tsunayoshi, will mostly be referred to as Tsuna when the story is written from his point of view, while parallel-Tsuna will refer to himself as Tsunayoshi when the story is from his point of view. Though, how the other characters address the two Tsuna will depend on the characters themselves. Hope you find this useful ^_^

Mata ne~

 **First Published:** 12 May 2017


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